GW2 Dungeon Guide

[Windemere]

Overview:

Guild Wars 2 Dungeons are PvE instances for groups of up to 5 players. There are eight standard dungeons, plus a few that are only available during special events, and one special kind of dungeon called a fractal. The post only touches upon the eight standard dungeons.

Dungeons become available to players beginning at level 30 and additional ones unlock at later levels. Each dungeon has both a story mode and explorer mode. The following chart outlines which dungeons are available at what level.



Story mode is played through on the first visit to the dungeon and unfolds an aspect of the story of the Destiny's Edge group. They do not need to be completed in order but their plotlines will be more meaningful when the personal storyline has been completed up to the same level that the dungeon is unlocked.

Explorer mode is a more difficult instance which requires more co-ordination to play through and is unlocked after completing story mode. It deals with the aftermath of the events in story mode. The explorable dungeon story is told with fewer cutscenes and little exposition, and the player party is no longer joined by members of Destiny's Edge. The player is presented with at least three different paths to play through for each dungeon. The party votes on the option they will take through the dungeon and the majority determines on which path they take. The explorable mode dungeon is designed to be repeated, with player actions and decisions determining the occurrence of hidden or random events along with the choice of a path.


Items of Note:

1. Content does not scale depending on the number of players in the party so the difficulty remains constant.

2. Characters are dynamically leveled up or down to the level appropriate for the relevant story or explorable mode.

3. There are a lot of item drops. Have lots of inventory space and salvage kits!

4. If someone enters the dungeon instance while you are in the same world map zone, you will be given the option to teleport directly to their location without any cost.

5. While there are no strict gear requirements, please try and make sure you have equipment commensurate with your level and keep the upgrade slots filled in.

Dungeon Walkthroughs:
http://gw2dungeons.net/

Guild Wars 2 Wiki:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dungeon

Using Stealth to Skip Mobs:

[Soulfinger]

I've only tried one dungeon, and that was one I tried to 2-man, and it was brutal... Got past the first boss and owned by the 2nd.

When you say that it is Story-Mode the first time you enter, what happens if 4 people are re-running it and one has never entered it before?

I had also read that the Explorer mode also have side-objectiveslike beating it in a certain amount of time (or something like that). I'd love to run a dungeon sometime... with more than 1 other player

[Sofija]

Is story mode like in SWTOR in that you can solo, or do you need a full group? Finally unlocked my first Story Dungeon.

[Windemere]

When you say that it is Story-Mode the first time you enter, what happens if 4 people are re-running it and one has never entered it before?

Then the entire party would need to run it in story mode. There is nothing stopping you from running story mode multiple times, so you can go back and help people who have not done it yet.

I had also read that the Explorer mode also have side-objectiveslike beating it in a certain amount of time (or something like that). I'd love to run a dungeon sometime... with more than 1 other player

I actually made this post in part because we're hoping to get regularly scheduled runs going by next week. But that doesn't mean you need to wait for a scheduled event. If you're online and see a group of people in guild, see if a group might be interested! There are very few who have actually seen them all so I expect there to be interest for a while.

Is story mode like in SWTOR in that you can solo, or do you need a full group? Finally unlocked my first Story Dungeon.

While there is no absolute requirement on number of players, quoting from original post ...

1. Content does not scale depending on the number of players in the party so the difficulty remains constant.

So the fewer players you have, the more awesome they will have to be. Trying solo on your first character will undoubtedly end badly though.

[Soulfinger]

Is story mode like in SWTOR in that you can solo, or do you need a full group? Finally unlocked my first Story Dungeon.

While there is no absolute requirement on number of players, quoting from original post ...

1. Content does not scale depending on the number of players in the party so the difficulty remains constant.

So the fewer players you have, the more awesome they will have to be. Trying solo on your first character will undoubtedly end badly though.

I would say Windemere is an optimist... IMO there is no way you can solo these things, even geared with end-game stuff, because you're going to be down-leveled to the level range of the dungeon. That dungeon I referred to was a level 30 dungeon and we ran it half way through the 40s, and we were whopped bad. I don't think there's any way you could solo it.

[Nimue]

I'd love to run a dungeon sometime... with more than 1 other player

I've only done the first two so far (once), but I'll be happy to come along! Just give me a shout when you see me online. Looking forward to the scheduled events Windemere mentioned

[Ismene (Quirk)]

I'd love to run a dungeon sometime... with more than 1 other player

I've only done the first two so far (once), but I'll be happy to come along! Just give me a shout when you see me online. Looking forward to the scheduled events Windemere mentioned

Likewise here! I'm so curious about the other dungeons and looking forward to seeing them. However, I'm happy to come along with anything really - dungeons, meta events or just rambling around the landscape. The only thing I think I can't do with you all is WvW stuff, since I'm on another realm. If we started doing that, though, I'd be willing to transfer!

[Windemere]

I added a link to a quick, 60 second video on using stealth to skip mobs. While I personally prefer to use that somewhat selectively, if you're in a PUG it will ordinarily be assumed that you will skip as much trash as possible in explorer paths.